Bears Draft Man of Mystery: Marte Mapu

If there is a man of mystery on the list of players who had reported top-30 visits with the Bears it's Sacramento State's Marte Mapu.

He's a mystery for several reasons, the main one of which is no one can be sure what he'll be playing in the NFL. It definitely will be a team-specific role.

That's because Mapu lined up about anywhere in college in a hybrid type of role as a 6-foot-2 5/8, 217-pound safety, or was it slot cornerback? Or was it linebacker?

It's not as if he is a complete unknown like a Division II or D-III player, as he was first-team All-America and Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year.

It's just tough to pin him down to a position.

Pro Football Focus tracks snaps played lining up in different places. In the last two seasons over 25 games they had him 409 times lined up in the box as a linebacker, 113 times like a deep safety, 926 times like a slot cornerback. He's all over the place.

It didn't matter where he lined up, he produced. He had 165 tackles, 13 for loss, with 22 pass breakups, seven interceptions, a blocked kick and a forced fumble.

Another reason he's a man of mystery besides his unusual use as a hybrid type of player and the fact he played at a lesser-known Football Playoff Series school was his injury.

No one got a real good look at him in the postseason evaluations because he was snubbed for the combine despite being the conference defensive MVP and then during his predraft training he tore a pectoral muscle off the bone doing bench presses.

So it was probably worthwhile to bring him in for a top-30 visit just to have team medical personnel evaluate him. He has assured teams he'll be ready for camp, if not some offseason work.

Some of the scouting evaluations of him based on the regular season are the best places to turn to figure out how he'll fit in. Maybe one of the best was a simple comparison made. The Draft Network's evaluation made the comparison of Jeremy Chinn, the former Southern Illinois player who is with Carolina. Chinn has 292 career tackles, which ranks third since they began tracking tackles behind Luke Kuechly (473) and Jon Beason (416) for most in a player's first three seasons.

Best guess on how the Bears would use him is as a specialty player in pass coverage at linebacker or on special teams.

This wouldn't be a complete stab in the dark to select Mapu at some point because before his injury and despite the combine snub, scouts got to see him play in the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, and he was good enough to receive an invitation then to the Senior Bowl. He made the most of that appearance, as well. Scouts raved about his showing.

He played for the American team, coached by Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. Several Bears top-30 visits were made by players Getsy had on his team in the Senior Bowl.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven